'So much the more reason to talk about it. Lucy will want a home. She won't be able to stay up at Newnham, she tells me; she will have no one but her cousin Mary when the Master is dead, and the old lady. I think I shall ask her to-morrow. I should like her to feel that she will not be left friendless when the end comes.'
'I should wait till after the exam., if I were you. I shouldn't let anything interfere with the exam. You will have all your life to marry in.'
Edgell lay back in his chair and laughed good-naturedly at his Mentor.
'Anyone would think, Wattles, that you wanted to marry her yourself.'
There was no occasion for that very common-place-looking young man to blush so dreadfully.
'I only meant to advise you for your good,' he said awkwardly, and then he went over to the door and said good-night; but when he reached the door, and he had the handle in his hand, he paused irresolutely, and looked across the room at the man with the scar in his throat leaning back in the chair. The scar was dreadfully visible in that light. It seemed to have a charm for Gwatkin. He couldn't keep his eyes off it.
'What's up?' said Edgell, seeing that he paused by the door.
Eric came back to the table where Edgell was seated, and laid his hand on his shoulder, a friendly, unmistakable grip.
'Dear old man,' he said in a broken voice, and the other could see that his foolish weak lips were quivering, 'you won't mind my speaking my mind to you; you will forgive what I say?'